Etsy Success Panel

Last night I attended the Etsy Success Panel, held at the Kenmore Live Studio in Chicago.

The studio itself is fascinating, like a glass aquarium television studio all at once modern, bright, white and filled with Kenmore appliances. When I arrived the sign advertised "Be on TV!" and a live cooking demonstration from 7-9. Felted acorn pie with whipped soap frosting? Rotisserie owl in cabochon sauce? I signed in on an iPad and found Daniellexo, Etsy admin extraordinaire (formal title: Seller Education Coordinator) whom I first met in person at the 2008 Chicago Renegade Fair.
The panel was hosted by a woman from the Kenmore studio and Julie Schneider (julieincharge) of general EtsyLabs awesomeness. No cooking (though the Bleeding Heart Bakery cookies and cupcakes served after were amazing), just a good discussion about business plans, marketing, shop improvement, craft improvement, getting to where you are today and getting to where you want to be in the future.
We "studio audience" members watched a short introductory video (same as above) on the giant wall between the oven and the refrigerator, and then panelists Danny Orendorff from Renegade Craft Fair, Emily Hamma Martin from Orange Beautiful, Daniellexo, and Ali Marie from DolanGeiman spent 90 minutes talking about all things art, craft and business.
For me, the most important (and least-discussed everywhere else) points were:

• Have a business plan. Set tiered goals. Where do you want to be in 6 months? a year? 5 years? For the millions of things you want to do, from buying a better camera to setting up your own website to having your own brick-and-mortar shop, give yourself priorities and a time-line. If five major retailers aren't carrying your product in exactly three years, that's ok, but set those benchmarks to give yourself direction and incentive.
• Keep track of customers. They bought from you in the past, they are more likely than the average shmoe to buy from you again. Make nice and stay in contact with short, interesting, regular newsletters. Reward them for returning and they just might.
• Market to bloggers. Not just any bloggers, bloggers with good readership that is likely to want your product. Send the blog's author a personal email, make sure you've actually read the blog, and try to ask for something specific like to take part in a giveaway.
• Stay aware of trends. Be yourself, but stay fresh.

After the panel was the meet-and-greet. I shmoozed with other indie sellers including Caitlin M. Peters of Wanderlustings and Mitsu Gee of Brown Sparrow's Nest, and the other two fabulous Etsy admins who were there, julietgo and ThisIsMark. I also ate too many cupcakes.

Tomorrow: Shopping Renegade! The weather is supposed to be decent.
When I woke up this morning to cold and rainy, I felt bad for the people selling at Renegade. At least it's better than...what year was it?..when the wind and the rain came in sideways and everybody's stuff got knocked over and ruined and foot traffic was abysmal.


Art: "lida" pendant by Wanderlustings, photo by Cari Ann Wayman
Motivate Notecards by Orange Beautiful

"How do you KNOW it's vintage?"

Art: Know It AllNo 2 Pencil Set by paperpastries

As a writer, I go back through notes and restaurant specials menus and old newspapers just to make sure it really was a Tuesday when my family left for San Diego. For a person who doesn't believe in "The Truth," I'm a bit obsessed with finding as much accurate information as humanly possible when building and relaying a story.

This goes double for my vintage and antique finds. I will research every mark, every classic seam and shape of an item to find its story. Often, a particular logo or trademark was only used during a set number of years, or a company produced a model between very specific dates. Sometimes I get lucky and find a dated magazine advertisement for the exact item I've found. Often it is a known piece of vintage history.

Those are these easy clues. But there are times when I find something truly wonderful without easy to define date markers or labels. What then?

Art by ModishVintage: vintage miniature collection under glass

I'm not one to play it fast and loose. But one time I found an estate sale of a woman who had just moved from her condo to an assisted living community. The gentleman who had been taking care of her ran the sale at her directive while the landlord wanted her completely out as soon as humanly possible.
Her condo was incredible, with pristine pieces of American history from the past 75 years. I'd already spent an hour combing through boxes and collecting dishes, knives, irons, place mats, and clocks when somebody asked, "have you been upstairs?"
Apparently, the woman's sister had lived in an almost identical condo two floors above but died 30 years ago. Unable to cope with the loss, they put everything in plastic bags and closed the door, leaving this second condo a perfect time capsule. There was more clothing than I could handle, souvenirs from the sisters' world travels, accessories to make you squeal and knick-knacks telling stories of long-gone times. In this time capsule, I didn't have to worry about things being truly vintage because nothing in the entire condo had been purchased since 1980.

Demolition sales are less clear cut, but if a house is from the 1940s (as most of my favorite ones are), the doorknobs and the railings are probably from the 1940s, too. If I'm lucky, I get to speak to the house owners and they know exactly when different elements (paricularly cabinet knobs) were added to the house. Sometimes, I'm stuck looking at the house and the element itself and I have to make an educated guess. I hate doing that and frequently leave the age blank.

I'm not going to say something is vintage unless I truly believe it is more than 20 years old. If you discover something in my shop isn't what I say it is, please let me know. I am operating on my best research and information, that doesn't make me infallible.

The Problem With Pricing Formulas: Econ 001

Put extremely simply:

Let's say I make and sell mud.
My ingredients are dirt and water.
I find a cheaper dirt supplier with higher quality mud even closer to my house.
My supply costs go down.
My time costs go down.
Why should I charge less for my new nicer mud just because my costs went down?
I could charge the same and make more.
I could charge more and maybe make even more more.

Better plan:
Look at how much people buy mud like mine.
Look how much they willingly pay.
Look for the most they willingly pay and see when and why they pay that.
Don't look at "Mud for sale: $9 gazillion" signs unless those stores have paying customers.
Don't worry about people who do things that you are physically incapable of doing.
If no one wants mud, consider selling address labels.

Art: Victor Electric Adding Machine by me (JillHannah)

ramble VICTOR whirrrrr ADDING fizzle MACHINE

I want to list things but my brain is Swiss cheese. Can I just post pretty pictures with semi-coherant rambling sentence fragments?


Victor Adding Machine
Model 60-85-54
Green
Lots of number buttons
Plug it in and it turns on and makes lots of noise and does stuff but I don't know how to use an adding machine so I don't know if it "works."
Produced 1950-1956
More information from this German site here: http://bit.ly/victor60-85-54
Did I mention it's green?
Weighs like 20 lbs. Convert that to kilograms yourself, dammit, I can hear my brain doing the Alka Seltzer fizzle.
It's really cool. The top swings open and there's all this mechanical stuff inside.
When it's plugged in it sounds and smells like my mom's old typewriter.
Yesterday when I calculated the 1951 price in Saar francs (from that German site) and converted it into 2010 US dollars it came out to almost exactly $700. I guess it was the office computer of its time - a big important investment.
It has no zeroes. This boggles my mind.
There's two shades of green: forest green and bright spring green. It's almost a mint green but not quite blue enough.
If you press a key while it's off, the key stays down. The second you plug it in, it springs back to life.
The body has a hump on its back. I was looking through patents and other models of the Victor adding machines and most of them don't have the hump. It reminds me of a car with some extra curvy piece to appear aerodynamic and sporty. I don't know why it needs the hump, if it's style or if there's an extra function that takes up more room. Whatever the rationale, this would be the coolest adding machine on wheels. And it's green.

NiftyKnits Untangling the Web of Business and Belief

Today, in her blog, the ever-fabulous NiftyKnits decided to poke one of her knitting needles at the tangled topic of business and religion. It reminded me of my "How Mature is Etsy" rant last May.
There's a good discussion going on Nifty's blog comments, and you will notice this blog post copy/pasted there as well, but I wanted to make this bit about the business/religion tangle clear and in my own blog.

What matters most in the grand "Is it OK to mix belief and business" debate is CHOICE--is a business abusing a captive audience? Or does the consumer have a choice?

If there is only one plumber in town and she won't unclog my toilet unless I pray with her, that is NOT ok.

If the only way I can obtain food for my family is by first listening to a political candidate's three-hour stump-speech, that is NOT ok.

If 809 of 9,034 soap sellers on Etsy require a sacrifice to Apollo in addition to PayPal or check, I can go to one of the 8,025 shops that don't demand loyalty to the ancient Greek god.

Get rid of Meerkat Nativity and where will Christian meerkats go on Christmas?
Religion and politics are part of the lives of many people, and associated merchandise isn't inherently good or bad. Like the "mature" marketplace, it should exist for those who want it and be optional for those who don't.
Art: Meercat in Green Sweater by NiftyKnits
Apollo Vintage Cameo by grigrio
Ibn Arabi Scroll Necklace by Soul Song Creations

Fabulous Find: Wrought Iron Arch

From a demolition auction in River Forest, IL:
As per demolition sale rules, you have to remove your purchases yourself ASAP. I figured a sledgehammer and my brother would do the trick no problem, but in the end my brother, father, and roommate all put forth a brilliant effort in getting the arch from the demolition site to its new temporary location:It's a nice piece, just waiting for the right home.
There is a ring hanging down in the center from which you could hang a lantern, sign, or anything else.I haven't removed the lights yet in case someone wants them on there.

More photos:


Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing the arch. I can deliver to non-axe-murderers around Chicagoland.

Vintage Supply that Begs to be Artified

I found this ring at this guy's warehouse-that-will-turn-into-a-store-if-the-loan-ever-comes-through sale. I wanted to jump into business with the guy and turn his space into something for as close to $0 as possible in return for sharing the venue, but that's another story.

The ring!

This ring is a crafts(wo)man, artist, and jeweler's dream project. It is a 1920s vintage element with structure and an art deco design for inspiration and direction, but there is so much possibility.
Someone unceremoniously ripped out the five stones settings and all, leaving behind cut marks on the gold.
A person with talent and more metalsmithing/jewelry background than a few summers at camp could make this thing gorgeous.



Any ideas?